Description
Book SynopsisAn acclaimed political thinker traces the intimate experiences of history in the formal experiments of modern literature.
Trade ReviewSudipta Kaviraj is one of the foremost scholars anywhere in the world working on South Asia. A master of the essay form, his writings on political theory and Indian politics show him to be a scholar of vast erudition, subtle analytical skill, and brilliant humor. -- Partha Chatterjee, Columbia University
Table of ContentsIntroduction: Literature as the Mirror of Modernity 1. On the Advantages of Being a Barbarian 2. Literature and the Moral Imaginations of Modernity 3. The Two Histories of Literary Culture in Bengal 4. A Strange Love of Abstractions: The Making of a Language of Patriotism in Modern Bengali 5. Tagore and Transformations in the Ideals of Love 6. The Poetry of Interiority: The Creation of a Language of Modern Subjectivity in Tagore's Poetry 7. Laughter and Subjectivity: The Self-Ironical Tradition in Bengali Literature 8. Reading a Song of the City: Images of the City in Literature and Films 9. The Art of Despair: The Sense of the City in Modern Bengali Poetry 10. The Invention of Private Life: A Reading of Sibnath Sastri's Autobiography 11. The Second Mahabharata Index
